Gareth Valentine (born 22 November 1956) is a Welsh composer, arranger, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted orchestras worldwide including the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

Welsh National Opera Orchestra Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic p ...

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

, Pasdeloup orchestra, RPO Concert Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, ENB Sinfonia, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and many others. After graduating from the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including perform ...

, London, he studied with Sir

Peter Pears Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career starte ...

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Ald ...

.Channel 4, Musicality, Profile of Gareth Valentine
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Early life

A native of

Cefn Mawr Cefn Mawr () is a village in the community of Cefn within Wrexham County Borough, Wales. Its name translates as "big ridge".Mills, D. ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', OUP, p.104 The population in 2001 was 6,669, increasing to 7,051 i ...

, Valentine was educated at

Ysgol Rhiwabon Ysgol Rhiwabon ("Ruabon School") is a historic comprehensive school in Ruabon, Wrexham, Wales for 11- to 16-year-olds. The headteacher is Melanie Ferron-Evans. In 2003 the Estyn Report concluded that "Ysgol Rhiwabon provides good opportunities ...

Ruabon Ruabon ( cy, Rhiwabon ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name comes from ''Rhiw Fabon'', ''rhiw'' being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" and ''Fabon'' being a mutation from St Mabon, the original church ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

, Wales. He then graduated from the

, London, and later studied with Sir

at the ''Advanced School of Singing and Strings''

Professional career

Valentine was composer and music supervisor for ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...

'', the pantomime, at the Old Vic starring

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

and

Roger Allam Roger William Allam (born 26 October 1953) is a British actor, who has performed on stage, in film, on television and radio. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical '' Les Misérables'', First Officer ...

. His "Requiem" has been performed worldwide to international acclaim and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London. He was music supervisor for the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

television series "Musicality". He was commissioned to arrange George Gershwin's music for a ballet, Strictly Gershwin, for English National Ballet which was presented in 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall, London and which he also conducted. The Times called the musical contribution "outstanding". Strictly Gershwin was presented by Queensland Ballet (2016) and Tulsa Ballet (2018)

Credits

Valentine has worked extensively in London's West End on many musical productions including: *

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

Miss Saigon ''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...

Cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...

- Aldwych *

Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-stag ...

- Victoria Palace & RSC * Camelot - Covent Garden Festival *

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

- Adelphi/Moscow/Gottenburg/Madrid/Tokyo/Seoul * Acorn Antiques! (Haymarket) * Nine - Donmar Warehouse *

Damn Yankees ''Damn Yankees'' is a 1955 musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., dur ...

- Adelphi * Children Will Listen - Colisseum * Sinatra at the London Palladium - London Palladium * My One and Only - Piccadilly * Maria Friedman's Rearranged - Trafalgar * Closer Than Ever - Vaudeville * Oh Kay! - Chichester * Sleep With Friends - UK Tour * 42nd Street - Theatre Royal *

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age Musical theatre, stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre ...

- UK & Canada * Merrily We Roll Along - Donmar Warehouse *

Anything Goes ''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...

- West End/National Theatre *

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

- West End * Sondheim At 80 (Donmar at Queen's) * Kiss of the Spider Woman - West End *The Pajama Game (Chichester Festival Theatre) *Guys & Dolls (Chichester Festival Theatre) *National Theatre 50th Anniversary TV event *Home (National Theatre/The Shed) *

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', ...

- West End * Wicked - West End *

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the chil ...

- In the round, Royal Albert Hall with RPO * Into The Woods, Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park * End Of The Rainbow Trafalgar Studios * Crazy For You Novello Theatre, West End *Strictly Gershwin (ENB) Albert Hall/National Tour *Brynfest with Bryn Terfel and WNO Orchestra (RFH) *City Of Angels (Donmar) Singin' In The Rain (Chatelet, Paris) Follies (Royal Albert Hall, London) 42nd Street (Chatelet, Paris) Strictly Gershwin (Tulsa Ballet USA) Ruthless! (Arts Theatre, West End) Me & My Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre) Sweet Charity (Donmar) Sound of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Recordings

Album recordings include: *Love Never Dies *Musicality *Anything Goes *The Baker’s Wife *Company *Chicago *Kiss of the Spiderwoman *Tonight’s The Night *Requiem

References

Rainbow Network - Interview with Gareth Valentine, 30 November 2001The Daily Telegraph - 10/11/2004 "Musicals are still calling the tune," says Sarah Crompton
Quotes Valentine as saying: "Musical theatre is a great confectionery of ingredients. When it is done right, it is the most exciting thing."
The Daily Telegraph - Dominic Cavendish reviews Porgy and Bess at the Savoy Theatre
"With the aid of composer Gareth Valentine, Nunn's production has cut down the original running time"
Porgy and Bess (UK production) - Gareth Valentine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, Gareth British composers Living people 1956 births Alumni of the Royal College of Music People educated at Ysgol Rhiwabon